Opinion

Community Columnist

Navigating toward cultural proficiency

There is a Facebook page called "Too Many Black People in One Place is a Bad Thing." Whether driven by ignorance, bigotry or just plain stupidity, some people believe it. Cultural competence is a way that we can explore our personal biases and shape our lives to consider the experiences of others.

Cultural proficiency is more than just tolerance. As defined by Randall Lindsey and his colleagues Delores Lindsey, Kikanza Nuri-Robins and Raymond Terrell, authors of "Culturally Proficient Instruction: A Guide for People Who Teach," it's an analysis of oneself and awareness of how one's culture and identify affects others. Cultural proficiency manifests itself in the way a society treats its members and is a lifelong practice measured by one's ability to acknowledge and empathize with the life experiences of people whose backgrounds differ from their own.

While watching the spectacle that was the 2012 presidential campaign, many epithets struck the chord of cultural incompetence.

President Barack Obama was portrayed as the food stamp president and the benevolent giver of handouts for black and brown half-Americans. If these comments didn't reek of racism, they were at the least insensitive and repulsive.

Some of us have given in to what we see, given in to the worst of the African-American experience and internalized it as all African-American experience. However, it is never too late to work toward compassionate views about the experience of individuals and groups unlike our own.

As school districts, universities and colleges move toward culturally proficiency, it is important to note what cultural proficiency is not. It is not living in a gentrified inner city neighborhood, visiting a black church to listen to gospel music, having a black, gay, Asian, differently abled or Latino friend. Nor is it using African-American vernacular English or accents around people with variant linguistic backgrounds. "What it be like" is wrong in any language.

Cultural bias is often subtle. It appears in the form of stereotypes that are made about entire communities. Bias evolves through cognitive dissonance, the space between one's reality and the reality of others. It's the place in time where your long-lived core beliefs are challenged to the point of annoyance and cynicism.

If we are to gain some level of cultural competence, we must be cognizant of our biases, jealousies and ignorance of others. In an era of cultural celebrations and days, months and weeks designated for cultural enlightenment, some may argue that a white male day is long overdue. I would argue that America was founded and designed by men who forgot that they weren't living alone. The traditional voice is not the only voice.

According to Lindsey, a number of principles guide cultural competence. Here are several: "Culture is a predominant force in shaping values, behaviors, and institutions; people are served in varying degrees by the dominant culture; there is diversity within and between cultures, and both are important; the family, as defined by each culture, is the primary system of support in the education of children; the diverse thought pattern of cultural groups are equally valid and influence how problems are defined and solved."

Being aware of other voices, ways of knowing, ways of doing and ways of being is not an affront to one's personal tradition; it is a means by which one grows in an understanding of our human community.

The journey should begin with an awareness of self. It may be difficult, but the path toward cultural competence begins with asking yourself what you believe about culture, race and diversity.

Exploring the road toward a better understanding of culture and diversity may be closer than you think. Aside from helping to congratulate December 2012 graduates, the Bestowing of the Kente, an Alverno College commencement event, will follow Alverno's Dec. 15 commencement exercises. Please join Bestowing of the Kente participants at 4 p.m. in Christopher Hall, Wehr Auditorium; 4100 W. Morgan Ave. Tickets are not required.

There will be a lot of black people there who will bring their joy, experience and promise. It'll be a sight to see. Pass it on.

Caryl Davis of Milwaukee is a faculty member at Cardinal Stritch University's School of Urban Initiatives. Email imanii4u@gmail.com